The Hurdy-Gurdy Method

I found the book very useful as a beginner on the hurdy gurdy.

This was the only English language book I've found, it is very helpful and through.

Comprehensive and helpful

It was hard for me to give only 2 stars since this is the only English Hurdy Gurdy method book I know of. Excellent beginner book unfortunately mine was shipped without the supplement (for the coup workshop) that should’ve been included and numerous bottom pages with sentences cut off. The book I received clearly was defective but too much hassle to ship back.

Explains the trompette technique very well. There are also some music sheets to play and practise.

Bon produit. Prix ​​correct. Livraison efficace.

The first edition of this book was published in 1979; this seems to be the revised 3rd edition from 1998, but there is an introduction paragraph by Michael Muskett dated June 2015. Doreen passed away in 2014. As fr as I understand, Doreen wrote the bulk of the method; Michael did the technical sections and did all the photography and typesetting etc. The book is really excellent as a method book. It has a lot of different sections, including an illustrated history of the instrument, and a section on its use in 18th century French courtly music. Most of the book is taken up by the very clear and detailed technical exercises. These are well thought out and packed in; I am finding that one page has enough exercises to last me a week of practice before moving to the next page, and the exercises (if you work like this at each one) give a very structured understanding of the different aspects of the technique. There are (in the later stages) plenty of example tunes to use what you have learned in each lesson. The method very much focuses on the traditional French method, with no acknowledgement of alternative "modern" tunings or dispositions. Perhaps this is because many of these have been invented since the 1980s. But it gives a solid view of the inherited tradition. There is a nice labelled drawing of a traditional French instrument with all the parts named in French and in English, and there is a glossary and a couple of little notes about French terminology. There is a reference in the text to the accompanying tape, but this was not included. I found a n earlier version of the audio on Bandcamp though I don't know if this is authorised or not. Because it is from an earlier edition it does not exactly match up with the exercise and page numbers in this edition. But it is still very useful to hear her explaining and demonstrating the sound of the instrument in the different exercises and tunes. The book is A4 format with a slightly furry-textured softback cover. There are plenty of illustrations, clear line drawings, photos of hands on the instrument, and historical photos and engravings and artworks. There is an index of the tunes in the book - about 100, over half French, the rest mainly British and Irish, and a few medieval tunes and a few others. There is also bibliographies and a list of illustrations. The book includes instructions for assessing and buying an instrument, tuning, cottoning the strings, and making and adjusting your own chien. There are a few things that are not 100% clear without a demonstration from an expert, and a live or video demonstration of some of the movements helps clarify things in the book that are not fully explained in the text and photographs. I think that is just a limitation of using a book to describe a performance art, and is not a criticism of this particular book which I think does really well at explaining things. All in all I believe this is an essential book for anyone starting hurdy-gurdy.

El libro ha venido con una hoja pegada al lomo interior y doblada, seguramente producida en la encuadernación, pues la impresion en las dos caras era la correcta. Además, también ha venido con un par de dobleces en las cubiertas (como la de la foto). No he procedido a la devolución puesto que es un producto sin casi stock en España y he solucionado lo de la hoja interior con mucho cuidado. Aunque han quedado las dobleces, lo he considerado un mal menor, pero si hubiera sido otro título diferente, hubiera procedido a su reemplazo. Editado: Al final pedí el reemplazo al ver que tenían stock. El que llegó nuevo no vino perfecto porque vienen en sobre de Amazon. A tener en cuenta que viene de UK y no viene bien protegido.

Bought as a gift as these books are difficult to find. Very much appreciated by new owner